Tax returns: What they tell us about Cynthia Nixon, Andrew Cuomo and Marc Molinaro

Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro announced his run for governor on Monday, April 2, 2018, and answered questions from Capitol reporters in Albany.
Joseph Spector, Albany Bureau

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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks at an event back in April. Cuomo has raised $100 million for his three campaigns for governor, the USA Today Network's Albany Bureau found.(Photo11: Seth Wenig/AP file photo)Buy Photo

Cuomo's campaign has needled his foes, calling on them to release 10 years of returns, while Molinaro has seized on the Democratic governor's property-tax situation. Nixon, meanwhile, released her 2017 return Friday.

So what have the tax returns showed? Here's a refresher.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo

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Cuomo's campaign has needled his foes, calling on them to release 10 years of returns.
Jamie Germano

There's a long history of statewide political candidates releasing their tax returns in New York.

Cuomo has made his returns available each year to reporters in Albany since running for attorney general in 2006, when he released the previous 14 years of returns.

The governor's 2017 return showed he had a federal adjusted gross income of $212,776, which was largely from $173,046 in wages as governor and $36,486 in dividends from his investments in a blind trust managed by AMG National Trust Bank.

He paid $41,765 in federal taxes. He paid $12,782 in state income taxes and donated $11,000 to charity, which went entirely to HELP USA, the housing charity Cuomo founded in 1986.

Nixon and Marinoni's personal returns show they paid $150,600 in federal taxes last year and $62,866 in New York state and New York City taxes, with smaller amounts of income tax paid in five other states related to Nixon's acting career.

The couple also gave more than $45,000 to dozens of charitable organizations through a foundation they set up to distribute grants.

Of that, $15,000 went to the Public Policy and Education Fund, an affiliate of Citizen Action, a liberal organization that has endorsed Nixon.

Grants of $5,000 went to the Roundabout Theatre Company, a nonprofit organization in Manhattan, and the North Star Fund, a Manhattan-based fund that issues grants to activist groups.

Nixon and Marinoni listed about $8,000 in personal donations to charity, though the individual charities weren't listed on the returns.

Marc Molinaro

Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro announces last month that he will run for governor.(Photo11: Patrick Oehler/Poughkeepsie Journal)

Molinaro, the Dutchess County executive and likely Republican gubernatorial nominee, released his 2017 tax return on Thursday.

He released a single year's return, though it included a chart summarizing the past five years of he and his wife's income and taxes paid.

Molinaro and his wife, Corinne Adams, had a combined adjusted gross income of $174,048 in 2017, which was largely from Molinaro's $139,869 salary as county executive.

Adams received about $27,000 for her job as marketing director for Tinkelman Brothers Development Corporation, a Poughkeepsie-area company led by Steven Tinkelman, who has contributed about $2,300 to Molinaro's political campaigns over the years.

Adams handles social media and marketing for the company and submits time sheets, according to Molinaro's campaign.

Molinaro's return shows he owns a rental property on Prince Street in Red Hook, collecting $27,000 in rent in 2017.

That came just short of covering the $27,835 in mortgage interest and taxes he paid on the property through the year, with Molinaro listing another $7,382 in depreciation costs.

He also withdrew about $7,000 from a retirement account last year. That was to help pay for a new house in Red Hook, Dutchess County, according to Molinaro's campaign.

"His account was closed because they needed the money towards purchasing their new home (Red Hook) that they pay taxes on," spokeswoman Katherine Delgado said in an email.

Molinaro listed one charitable contribution in 2017: $1,000 worth of furniture, clothing and household items donated to the Young Mission Outreach in Poughkeepsie.